For lovers of books, their display is part of a home’s design aesthetic. This is no less true when Hallow’s Eve has haunting at hand.

Aren’t books the magic potion that reveal all the greatest spooky stories? The dark wizardry of reading a well-told tale, hunkered down under the covers on a blustery October night?

No surprise, then, to see books claiming their place in decking homes out for Halloween festivities. Welcome to this special holiday edition of Living With Books, featuring do-it-yourself tips for using books as you decorate your haunted manor.

Throughout the web*, decorators and crafters offer tips for decorating for Halloween, using books.

Prop open a copy of Edgar Allen Poe, open to “The Raven,”beneath candelabra draped with cobwebs and a silk raven lurking.

Damaged or cast-off books can be aged furtherby scorching their edges or dampening until they curl. Coffee or tea add the perfect aged cast. Paint covers black, or uneven brown (try shoe polish) to simulate aged leather or wood. Embellish with spooky titles — there’s the ordinary Spells and Potions, or get creative: Anatomy of a Monster, Forbidden Secrets, Rattling of Bones. Display on a drape of velvet or moss, with props like potion bottles and bones.

Use the loose pages of damaged books as background to Halloween artwork. Roll them into scrolls (tie several around a form to make a haunting wreath) or use them as the backdrop to silhouettes of bats, mounted in a frame.

Of course, don’t forget the best part: if you have them, be sure to put your best spook tales on display:

Leave out a tub of Halloween stories for entertainmentthroughout the season or a quiet activity at a children’s party.

Not really spooky tales? When stood together, spines of provocative titles are good enough to evoke your theme. Sure, think Something Wicked This Way Comes. But also: Manuel Puig’s The Kiss of the Spider Woman, Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion or Randall Kenan’s A Visitation of Spirits.

Age makes anything spooky. A vintage typewriter, old hat or leather bound books of any title turn spooky when mixed with a skull, flying bats or tumble of spiders.

In need of a graveyard tale? Try Nathan Englander’s Ministry of Special Cases or Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book.

4 responses to “Living With Books 06: Books Are Spooky, Too”

Veronica, seriously – why had I not thought to move my A Christies to the forefront until I was typing this post? Certainly books are the source of Halloween’s greatest themes! Thanks for reading and posting!